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Forget grabbing a latte on the run — California’s latest coffee craze wants you to make a reservation, take a seat, and surrender your caffeine order, and a small fortune, to the experts.A new crop of Japanese-style “coffee omakase” tasting bars are turning the humble cup of joe into the kind of drawn-out, multi-course experience more commonly associated with Michelin-starred restaurants — complete with rare beans, food pairings, mocktails and eye-popping prices upwards of $125 for a sitting.Popularized in cities like Tokyo, the elite experience is just the latest push toward luxe to emerge from the Golden State’s obsessive, sprawling specialty coffee scene — where the once-humble pourover has become a coveted and costly item — with cups crafted from rare beans flown in from around the globe pushing prices past $20 at top cafes.The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.
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Never miss a story In LA, cult favorite destinations like Dayglow and Kumquat Coffee have in part built their following around meticulously prepared brews and rotating beans — with prices not unusually in the double digits per serving.Lately that number appears to be pushing even higher — in affluent Orange County, customers at booming mini-chain Play Coffee can currently be seen happily dropping $25 a cup to taste from rare roasters in China.The latest player to take things way upscale in SoCal is Omake — a sleek new Studio City brew bar that opened on Sept.
25 on Ventura Boulevard and has already started making the rounds on TikTok and Instagram.Behind its minimalist interior of walnut wood and raw stone lies a two-part establishment: a counter for everyday grab-and-go brews and a reservation-only bar dedicated entirely to multi-course coffee tastings.Within hours of opening, videos of Omake’s...